NYT 4:17
LAT 3:33
CS 7:23 (J—paper)
Tausig untimed
Did you do the Wednesday NYT crossword? If so, did you read Ryan's "Ryan and Brian do Crosswords" post? Ryan and Brian both are seriously funny, and their takes on the daily puzzle skew a different direction from the other bloggers. Based on the comments, it would appear that about a dozen people read Ryan and Brian's posts, but they absolutely deserve a larger audience. Give 'em a whirl if you haven't before.
In a few days, Eric Berlin is releasing his suite of nine puzzles with a board game theme to an elite group consisting of "people who are willing to buy good puzzles." I ponied up a few bucks via Kickstarter.com, but you can still join the cool kids. Go here for more info and handy-dandy PayPal/Amazon e-tail links. Eric created the Brooklyn-themed suite of puzzles many of us enjoyed the hell out of at the ACPT last year, and the new batch of puzzles promises to be equally fun (and of top quality).
Derek Bowman's New York Times crossword
Oh! Look at that. I hadn't taken the time to see what the words in the circled letters were because usually, the crossings were sufficient to reveal the answers with clues like [Second row]. But those circled letters make a...triangular word ladder? I'm not sure what the name is for a series of words in which one letter is removed at each step, but this one plays out like this, and those triangulated words clue answers as follows:
PATTERN (First row, 52A: DESIGN)
PATTER (Second row, 51D: SPIEL)
PATER (Third row, 43D: DAD)
PATE (Fourth row, 64A: HEAD)
PAT (Fifth row, 4D: DAB)
PA (Sixth row, also 43D: DAD)
A (Seventh row, 60D: ONE)
That's a nifty gimmick, one I've not seen before—definite bonus points for originality and thematic gutsiness. More bonus points for having 17 answers in the 6- to 9-letter range. And then we must dock a few points for the slew of icky 3- and 4-letter answers and the out-there, so-old-it's-crosswordese-I-don't-even-recognize EPHOR (2D: [Ancient Spartan magistrate]!). All things considered, I'll give this a thumbs up with mild reservations. It looks cool.
Among the knottier clues are these:
So, where did this bells-and-whistles, look-at-me puzzle land on your enjoyment spectrum? Closer to the "wow" or the "meh" end of things? As I said, I'm a little more on the "wow" end but with reservations. The concept is cool, and I'd like to see if another puzzle with a different set of pyramid words might play out more smoothly. There must be a few other seven-down-to-one-letter word ladders like this, no?
Updated Thursday morning:
Donna S. Levin's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "Heart of Gold"—Janie's review
Talk about yer "sparkly" fill...
52D tells us that [79] is the AT. NO. [for the chem. symbol at the heart of the four longest puzzle answers] to be found in Donna's grid. And that would be the atomic number for AU (from the Latin aurum)—or gold. Whether the symbol falls in the fifth and sixth squares or in the sixth and seventh, it always falls right in the middle—at the heart—of the theme phrase. Nice. And here're the four precious (metal) theme-phrases themselves:
Other fill/clues that illuminate the puzzle include: [Dolls or Clusters preceder] for GOO GOO; the verbal cluster of FREER for [Less inhibited], which might predispose you to behaving in an [Affectionate] FOND way towards someone, which might lead to some [Togetherness] UNITY; and [Cancún coin] PESO—which might go towards the cost of a FAJITA [Grilled Tex-Mex dish].
The other combo that really grabbed me today was [Logger's leftover] for STUMP. Are many of you aware of the brief but wildly destructive storm that passed through Manhattan Tuesday a week ago (8/18)? Winds of up to 70 miles per hour in something called "micro bursts" or "down bursts" swept through the city and wreaked wild-crazy havoc on Central Park, taking down some 200 trees and doing irreparable damage to literally hundreds more. The clean-up has been in effect from the get-go and will continue until the job's done, of course. But ya simply can't believe the extent of the damage. Here's a link to the Central Park Conservancy where you can read more—and also see some dramatic photo coverage. There's many a stump in Central Park these days where there used to be a tree. Alas!!
To close on a lighter note: Donna has also included three bonus "nuggets." Can ya find 'em?
Don Gagliardo's Los Angeles Times crossword
Today is crossword D-Day, with puzzles from Derek, Donna, and Don.
Don's puzzle is made on a budget, with three short symmetrical theme entries worth $1 (LOVED ONES, or 50A: [Adored bills?]), $5 (HIGH FIVES, or 23A: [Lofty bills?]), and $10 (TOP TENS, or 38A: [Superior bills?]), but no ROARING TWENTIES. Running downward at 8D, intersecting those three theme answers, is TERRIBLE TWOS, [Hated bills (that appropriately spoil this puzzle's symmetry)?] Hey, I love the $2 bill! Sure, it's a mere curiosity that nobody much got in the habit of using, but it looks great. The symmetry hiccup is at the L in TERRIBLE TWOS; for a symmetrical grid pattern, that square should've been black.
I do like asymmetry for a purpose, but this feels a little arbitrary. The phrases with numbers have nothing to do with currency, and the clues for those phrases have nothing to do with those denominations: $5 are neither lofty nor high. What I do like is the traditional crossword sticklers getting poked a little: Sure, we can have a theme entry that wrecks symmetry, but we're going to moralize and call it TERRIBLE because we know it's breaking the rules. If EXCELLENT TWOS was an actual phrase, it would fit thematically but the naughtiness of asymmetry wouldn't get a wink.
The toughest part of this puzzle, for me, was the northeast corner:
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Foreign Consumption"
This theme skirts around the trouble spots Brendan Quigley outlined for circled-letter themes. Five theme entries are all food items, and the spaced-out hidden words in the circled letters are a graphic representation of food contamination by various substances. Tying these together is the FDA at 71A: [Agcy. that sets (often surprisingly high) maximum standards for the amounts of the circled materials in edible goods]. Holy crap! The "circled materials" include:
Did this puzzle ruin your appetite? Because it didn't even touch on the allowable number of insect parts the FDA says are A-OK in the food supply. You can read up on the official limits here. For canned citrus fruit juice, for example, the limit is "5 or more Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml or 1 or more maggots per 250 ml." Cornmeal has set limits for the number of whole insects, insect parts, rodent hairs, and rodent excreta. I wish I were kidding! Ben is right: the limits are indeed "often surprisingly high." Shall I go on? Just one more: In ground marjoram, the "insect filth" cap is "Average of 1175 or more insect fragments per 10 grams." I can't help wondering how much 1175 insect fragments weigh. Okay, I'll stop, thoroughly disheartened about the food supply. Good crossword, though!
August 26, 2009
Thursday, 8/27/09
December 15, 2008
Tuesday, 12/16
Jonesin' 4:13
Sun 3:35
CS 3:14
NYT 2:50
LAT 2:45
Three cheers for President-elect Obama! He announced his pick for Secretary of Education today, and it's Arne Duncan from the Chicago Public Schools. While many Chicagoans, especially those of us with kids in the public schools, will miss him, how nice that a guy named ARNE is becoming nationally prominent. Who will be the first crossword constructor to let this ARNE bail her out of a tight corner?
Gail Grabowski's New York Times puzzle hits the usual Tuesday difficulty level—pretty darned easy, but a notch tougher than a Monday. There are three theme entries whose ends are labeled by a fourth long answer:
There's a whole row in this puzzle that can be read backwards—STRAW TIDE PETS is STEP EDIT WARTS backwards. Good stuff in the grid: A [Standby passenger's salvation] is a NO-SHOW at the airline gate. A 'VETTE is a [Sporty Chevy, for short]. (The Corvette and the Ford Mustang are good arguments for a Big Three bailout.) HOT DOG is clued as an exclamation synonymous with ["Oh, goody!"]. BAD PRESS is [Unwanted publicity]. [Enough, for some] clues ONCE; Jacqueline Susann is on record as saying that once is decidedly not enough.
Kelsey Blakley's Sun puzzle is called "Out of Order" because the first two letters in each theme entry are out of order:
In the fill, the comparative CORNIER is clued as [More banal, as a joke]. Doesn't this make you want to pronounce HOOSIER ([Indiana native]) with an extra syllable? Hoosier, more hoosy. I was stymied by the clue [X tenth?], for which the answer is PIN—on a bowling score sheet, X is a strike, or 10 pins. Right below PIN is UNI, which is the Latin-derived prefix that means one, which is a tenth of the Roman numeral X, but I suppose it would have been hard to link UNI to X in the clue.
Matt Jones's Jonesin' crossword this week is a themeless one with the title, "Letters Entertain You." Matt puts his own stamp on a themeless. The grid has triple-stacked 10's intersecting with another triple-stacked set of 10's in two of the corners, and some of those 10's are absolutely fabulous. Kickass entries include the following:
Now, I can envision a themeless crossword in one of the weekend editions of a daily newspaper that would include a few of these answers, but usually we don't get such a wealth of fresh and fun stuff in a single puzzle. Favorite clues:
Updated:
Randall Hartman's CrosSynergy crossword, "Moving Along," progresses from one to four clue words, with the answers reflecting both the clue words' meaning and how many clue words there are:
When I read [Part of IPA] and saw that I needed 7 letters, I figured the answer couldn't be INDIA, PALE, or ALE. As it turns out, it's PALE ALE. IPA also stands for the international phonetic alphabet, which luckily has no 7-letter words in its name! [Diva Christina] is pop star AGUILERA and not an opera diva. BLEEPS are [Swear word deletions], in the news of late.
Today's LA Times crossword was constructed by Derek Bowman and Sarah Keller. The theme reconceives THREE-D MOVIES (like the new animated film, Bolt) as being movies with three D's in the title:
I'm not sure why MALADIES are clued as [Chronic ailments]; I think maladies can be short-lived acute conditions too. Is the flu not a malady? Speaking of diseases, ALOIS is the first name of [Dr. Alzheimer], who first identified the disease that bears his name. PHOOEY looks cute in the grid; it's clued as ["Nuts!"].
July 13, 2008
Monday, 7/14
Jonesin' 4:05
NYS 3:54
CS 3:04
NYT 2:34
LAT 2:32
Last updated at 1:20 p.m. Monday
It felt like I was moving easily through Ed Early's New York Times crossword, and yet I found myself mired in the theme. Mired! Yes, I am easily amused. If you lop off the ends of the four theme entries, you're left with assorted words meaning "morass." The two Across theme entries are Bostonian—FENWAY PARK, the [Red Sox stadium], and SWAMPSCOTT, a [Seaside community NE of Boston] that would have been woefully obscure to me if I hadn't become friends with someone who lives there. Did SWAMPSCOTT give anyone fits? In the fill, there's also the [Massachusetts vacation spot, with "the"], CAPE. The Down theme entries are from '70s Hollywood—MARSHA MASON, the ["Goodbye Girl" actress], and BOGDANOVICH, [Peter who directed "The Last Picture Show"]. Actress GENA Rowlands is in the fill—and she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in the '70s. Not long ago, the word carillon was in another crossword, and I recall that a number of solvers weren't familiar with the word. Now it's in the clue [Carillon site], leading to BELL TOWER. I do like it when two puzzles in close proximity include the same word when it's a little troublesome the first time—it's good not to have a chance to forget the new word before you need to retrieve it.
The New York Sun puzzle by Mark Feldman is plus-sized—a 15x16 grid. The "Anatomy of Poker" theme isn't up my alley because the vocabulary of poker isn't something that's second nature to me. The theme entries end with poker terms and begin with body parts, but the complete phrases have non-poker meanings. A [Basketball no-no] is HAND-CHECK, and apparently my knowledge of basketball's lingo is as thorough as my poker ken, because I needed all the crossings for this one. [Keep one's ___ (be on the alert)] clues EYES OPEN, and I believe this one counts as an 8-letter partial phrase. A LEG RAISE is a [Yoga exercise], a SKIN FOLD might be a [Cosmetic surgery target, often] (ick), and that [1997 Jamie Foxx film], BOOTY CALL, predates his Oscar by several years. I'm reading a book about the origins of New Orleans, so CASTILE, the [Kingdom that comprised most of Spain], was fresh in my mind. ADOBOS, the [Marinated Philippine dishes], are flavored with garlic and vinegar. In a crossword, BAR NONE looks just like BARN ONE—what would that be? The president's barn? A rural credit card issuer? CHICKEN gets a lively clue—[Game for daredevils]. So does TUBE TOP—[Sleeveless garment]. You know, the tube top is back in style these days, and I don't understand it. We did that in 1982. We're done now.
Updated:
Derek Bowman's LA Times crossword has a vowel progression theme, and I correctly pegged it as such when I filled in BOLL WEEVIL, the [Cotton field pest] and checked the clue for the theme entry above it—BILL CLINTON, the [Sax-playing president]. The theme rounds out with a BALL BEARING ([Rolling anti-friction machine part]), BELL PEPPER ([Veggie that's commonly red, yellow or green], and BULL SESSION ([Informal discussion]). Overall, the fill and clues are quite easy, but there are a few things I've learned from doing umpty-thousand crosswords over the years that beginners might not know. For example, a [Spartan serf] is HELOT, [Einstein's birthplace] is ULM, and [Flying African threat] is TSETSE (it breeds most efficiently in the bottom row of crosswords). Favorite clue: [Words with a nice ring?] for a marriage PROPOSAL.
The theme in Randolph Ross's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Easy as ABC," is phrases that contain a hidden ABC. [Topless Swedish import] sounds racy, but it's a SAAB CONVERTIBLE. CAB CALLOWAY was a [Cotton Club headliner]. [Maryland seafood specialty] is CRAB CAKE. [Cover-ups for chemists] are LAB COATS. And [Many an oil exporter] is an ARAB COUNTRY—I checked, and about half of OPEC's members are also part of the Arab League, though most Arab countries aren't in OPEC. In the fill, PIA MATER, or [Brain membrane], seemed a little tough for a Monday.
Updated again:
The theme in this week's Jonesin' crossword by Matt Jones is "Bye, George: items from the late George Carlin's 'Things to Watch Out For.'" I'm not at all familiar with the routine from which these items are drawn—here's a written list. The theme entries culled from that list are BROKEN GLASS, AIRLINE FOOD, CATTLE STAMPEDES, ACID RAIN, ENTROPY, LOCUSTS, and GRIDLOCK. So, 67 theme squares is quite a lot, but it's not so impressive when the list of candidates has about 130 items and when the comedy bit doesn't happen to resonate at all with the solver. Me, I preferred last week's themeless Jonesin'.
June 23, 2008
Tuesday, 6/24
CS 4:52
Tausig 4:33
Onion 3:51
NYS 3:50
LAT 3:37
NYT 3:19
In showbiz news today, Broadcasting & Cable reported that Merv Griffin's Crosswords is going into production hiatus until at least early 2009 "because the costs were outweighing the returns." Mind you, 80% of the country was supposed to be airing the show's second season starting this fall, but that's not in the cards now. Does anyone mind? (Thanks to Clarence for sending the link.)
Barry Silk's New York Times crossword has five theme entries that begin with things you might DRAW (67-Across) in some fashion. They're not always a thing in the theme phrase—for example, a BLANK EXPRESSION starts with an adjective, but you can also draw a blank. And a BATH (TOWEL), CURTAIN (CALL), PICTURE (SHOW), and GUN(POWDER). In the fill, A ONE is paired with A TWO to make North Dakota legend Lawrence Welk's signature intro. KENTUCKY and neighboring TENN. are another related pair of answers. Old-time actress ANOUK Aimee gets her oddball first name in the grid rather than her last name (which sounds like a first name), which I think has appeared far more often. Also a smattering of foreign words—TRE and AMORE are Italian, ETAT is French, BESO is Spanish, DII is Roman (that counts, right?), QED is a Latin abbreviation and AD HOC is also Latin, and EMEER is Arabic. ROOTY is in there clued as [Like ground around a tree] rather than as part of the IHOP meal called the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity—it could have shared the grid with EGGO, a breakfast option for those who don't want to EAT OUT.
Derek Bowman's New York Sun crossword, "A and Q from A to Z," spells out a sentence that is a pangram (it's got 37 letters; longer and shorter ones are included with it here): WATCH JEOPARDY! / ALEX TREBEK'S / FUN TV QUIZ GAME. The theme didn't do anything for me, really, but I loved some of the fill: MR. BIG, JFK JR., and MCJOB all have unexpected consonant pile-ups. JURY-RIGS is a great word. SKIP ROPE's good, and I like the [Do double Dutch, e.g.] clue. (Here's a high-octane double Dutch video.) ABSINTHE! And LUKA, the Suzanne Vega song from 1987 (here's the video). And LES MIZ, which is what the Les Miserables musical was popularly called. And then there's KIKI / DEE, who duetted with Elton John on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"; here's a video of that, in case you're in a YouTube mood. We had the 45 of that song when I was a kid, and I'm still fond of the tune. Watch the video and marvel at Elton and Kiki's wardrobes—bib overalls with an actual bib? Go figure!
Updated:
Bob Klahn's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Vanishing Act," is, as usual, clued harder than the typical themed crossword from the CrosSynergy team. ACT has vanished from the theme entries—long-term impact, for example, becomes [Dennis the Menace, seemingly forever?], a LONG-TERM IMP. A [Saturn commercial directive?] is LIGHTS, CAMERA, ION because Saturn's SUV is called the Ion. [Jerk on the stump?] is CAMPAIGN TIC (tactic). Fanciest fill: RUSTY NAILS, or [Scotch and Drambuie drinks]; REGULAR JOE, or [Fine fellow]; [1973 Jim Croce hit] I GOT A NAME; and WARTHOG, or [Pumbaa of "The Lion King"]. My favorite clues: James [Caan job] for acting ROLE; [Skosh] for TAD; the three "power"-related clues for 46-, 48-, and 49-Down pertaining to math, the SEA, and geopolitics; the two "serenade" clues for BOO and WOO; [Initial education?] for the ABC'S; and [Cow's first sound?] for a HARD C.
Chuck Deodene's LA Times crossword features three 15-letter things that are FILED (which crosses the middle theme entry). There were a bunch of words that resonated with another one nearby in the grid. ALLY is separated from ENEMY by a wall of black squares. Marilyn HORNE and [Kenny G's horn], the SAX, are close together. DEPARTURE crosses AFAR. [Optimistic] ROSY crosses [Pessimist] NAYSAYER. A question, for those of you who still have vinyl record albums in the house: Is an [Album's first half] called SIDE A? I know 45's had the A side hit and a B side, but I'm thinking albums had sides 1 and 2.
Updated again:
Ben Tausig's Ink Well/Chicago Reader crossword, "Summer Blast," decides to TURN ON THE A.C., or insert AC into four other phrases to change them. Bombshell turns into BOMB SHELLAC, a [Ten-megaton finish?]. The [Floral-scented rapper?] is LILAC WAYNE (Lil Wayne). The [Cosmic campaign appearance?] is BARACK AT THE MOON (as in Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon"). And an ID number turns into a drug [Dealer's inventory tag?], or ACID NUMBER. In the fill, CHACHA is clued as [Search engine that employs human searchers]. Here's chacha.com, if you're curious. My favorite fill: MANX CAT, ARM CANDY, [Queens-based clothier] FUBU, and [Kafka hero Gregor] SAMSA. BECK'S Dark is all right, but Negra Modelo is my go-to dark beer these days.
Deb Amlen goes literary in her Onion A.V. Club puzzle, but not so literary that the average high-school graduate who did the assigned reading will be lost. The theme is GEORGE ORWELL's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four—the THOUGHT CRIME concept, TELESCREEN technology, and all-seeing BIG BROTHER were scary and futuristic a few decades ago, but now? Orwell was looking mighty prescient. The Big Brother aspects of security cameras in public spaces, the PATRIOT Act, the TSA's airport screening, cameras that send you tickets for running a red light, and cell phones and search engines that track your whereabouts and queries weren't around in 1984, but they sure as hell are now. Scary, isn't it? I must chide Deb for the soap opera clue, [Anthony of "General Hospital"]. I immediately flashed back to 1980...and locked my sights on Genie Francis, who was Laura in the Luke and Laura pair. Anthony GEARY (Luke) eventually battled his way into the grid.
March 05, 2008
Wednesday, 3/5
NYS 5:43
NYT 4:25
CS 3:15
LAT 3:03
The Tyler Hinman win streak continues, with our team's first pub quiz win in too many weeks. I helped out with a vestigial childhood memory of the diving bell spider, while Tyler was spot-on when it comes to the Spanish Armada and the Battle of New Orleans.
Despite the pub portion of pub trivia, I've returned home to solve and blog. You know what? I took enough of a beating on Steven Ginzburg's New York Times puzzle—I will hold off on the Sun crossword until morning. The theme is sequential letters starting phrases—the [German auto debut of 1974] was the VW SCIROCCO, for example, and J.K. ROWLING is the [First person to win a Smarties Prize, for children's books, three years in a row] (that's non-American fake M&Ms, not the delicious little powdery American Smarties). Each corner of the grid has a brick of three 7-letter entries (such as SHRIVEL, HEADWAY, and I GIVE UP). Favorite clues/answers: [Meteor in a meteor shower] for LEONID; the double Desperate Housewives action of EVA Longoria and TERI Hatcher; [Ohio city named for a mathematician] for EUCLID (where the hell is Euler's town, huh?); VOCAB; [Spiked punch?] for the tool called an AWL; DIY, clued as [Like many a home improvement project, for short] (this answer was the subject of heated discussion on the Cruciverb-L mailing list some months back—it stands for "do-it-yourself" and there's even a cable channel by that name); and [It may be caught in a filter] for SPAM (not LINT!).
Updated:
The New York Sun puzzle, "Initial Initialisms," took me a good bit longer than the other puzzles—was it that much harder, does the extra row of squares in a 15x16 add that much time to the solve, am I having a dim morning, or was I just enjoying it too much to rush through? It's by Tony Orbach and Patrick Blindauer (who tie for the title of Friendliest Constructor at the Hotel Bar). The five theme entries, all oriented vertically, convert a 3-letter word at the start of a phrase into an initialism. [Ship a white chip with Brown?] is U.P.S. THE ANTE, [Tale about a real so-and-so?] is an S.O.B. STORY, and—my personal favorite—[Doing coke from a tombstone?] is R.I.P. SNORTING. That one's a good, funny-sounding phrase when it's played straight, and broken down it evokes the image of cokeheads snorting a line off the top of a granite marker. Morbid and inappropriate but funny as hell. I was momentarily confused by AM/FM RADIO, but that's not part of the theme because (a) AMFM isn't a pronounceable word and (b) it's opposite the classic Nancy Reaganism, JUST SAY NO. (That offsets the encouragement to start doing cocaine in the cemetery, I think.) SHOULDA is [Part of a rhyming rueful triumvirate]—that's just one of a dozen 7-letter answers in the fill.
Patrick Jordan wasn't at the crossword tournament last weekend. I hear he was in the Caribbean, enjoying his Merv Griffin's Crosswords vacation prize. (Yes, some crossword hotshots do win that show—just not all of us. Insert a moue emoticon here in your mind.) The CrosSynergy puzzle's got Patrick's byline today, with a "Last Hurrahs" theme I didn't put together until just this moment. Each theme entry ends with a WHISTLE, CLAP, or CHEER—presumably for Patrick's performance on MGC a few months back. There are 10 answers in the fill of 7 to 9 letters—I'm partial to STAGHORN fern, TUNGSTEN filaments, donated CASTOFFS, and a military TRIBUNAL. I'm not usually crazy about rhyming or alliterative clues, but I rather like [Gestation location] for WOMB.
The LA Times crossword is by Derek Bowman. The theme includes 75 of 80 entries—like a good report card, all A's. (Five answers, like SNL and LPS, contain only consonants.) The three longest are M/F pairs from a game show (PAT AND VANNA, Sajak and White), the Bible (ABRAHAM AND SARAH), and Hollywood (FRANK AND AVA, Sinatra and Gardner, the avatar of xword blogger Linda G.). Pretty easy once you notice that theonly vowel included in the grid is A. Favorite clue: [NBC show that did "Celebrity Jeopardy!" parodies] for SNL. Those skits were always funny. Do they still do those?
